Ten percent of nonprofits with more than 1,000 employees have requested an accommodation to the birth control coverage requirement of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) (P.L. 111-148), according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation data note. The federal government provides the accommodation to religiously-affiliated nonprofit employers that are not houses of worship, but that oppose contraception on religious grounds.

In addition, three percent of nonprofits with at least ten employees reported they have sought the accommodation. The accommodation is designed to ensure that women employees and dependents have full contraceptive coverage without cost-sharing, while at the same time releasing nonprofit religiously-affiliated employers that oppose birth control from the ACA’s requirement that they pay for contraceptive coverage. Kaiser estimates that many of the nonprofits that have sought the contraceptive accommodation are likely to be health systems or educational institutions affiliated with the Catholic Church.

Kaiser’s analysis also reveals that two percent of nonprofits with ten to 199 workers have sought the accommodation. Five percent of nonprofits with 200 to 999 workers have sought it.
These latest figures come as the U.S. Supreme Court is gearing up to hear a new round of legal challenges to the contraception requirement. There are seven pending cases that, as of November 6, 2015, the Court has agreed to review this term, wherein employers are challenging the contraception requirement on the grounds that they are unjustly burdened by the contraception requirement, in violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.